Okay. Oprah’s shindig grossed me out for its orgy of everyone’s shameless self promotion. Madonna just had to let you know that she’s building a school in Malawi. Madge will not be out humanitarianed! Tom Cruise was all over Oprah like they were slumber party buddies. Eww! How could these ego maniacs resist? How many people will be watching these last two goodbye shows. Beyonce kicked A$$. Bumping and grinding to raise feminine consciousness. She was very fierce, really.

It’s Bob Dylan’s birthday — the big 70. Bet Bob is a bit creaky but I think he was always that way though he does look angelic in those Woodstock photos surrounded by Sara and his sweet little babies.

Big donuts have taken over my art table! They look great all wrapped up and protected from fuzz and crud.

Pristine creations for a wonderful mom in Florida, these babies go out Monday, 11 in all by then, to attend a birthday party.

I have to pack them tight and haul the boxes to the post office. It’s a good feeling to finish a big order, get them all tagged and bagged and on their way. I imagine the happy recipient at the other end and that is definitely the best part.

These stacks of cutie-pie faux food represent hours of careful stitching. It’s a good meditation — slow, mindful, peaceful. There is love for the work and the buyer in every inch.

There is something about the roundness, the softness, the donutiness that comforts me.

Dang! I am envisioning a smaller, but equally cute little stacked cake soft sculpture. Yikes. Will I pull it off?

We all need to remember that there are so many creatures in the sea and each one is a special shining jewel on this planet.

This soft sculpture was created for all the brave, true souls who struggle to claim their identity and come through that experience victorious. I love you all. You make a big difference just by being you!

If you can think for yourself, are passionate about questioning assumptions and open to a bit of subversion read this book! Here is your chance to have your mind opened if you will allow it.
Gilbert gives herself to the conundrum of commitment as only a very bright questioner of authority could. She gamely challenges her own nagging doubts about the institution of marriage. She explores the twisted route (or roots) of its transformation, and maps its frequent changes over the last few centuries.
If you are perfectly comfortable following the prescribed societal routines, if you are deep-fried in any kind of fundamentalist religious beliefs and opposed to discovering historical context that might rattle your adamantine notions, if you expect this book to sing the praises of the bloated undertaking that is currently assumed to fulfill all a girl’s princess-shaped fantasies, go elsewhere.

That’s the Amazon review I wrote this morning for Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed: A Sceptic Makes Peace with Marriage. I was irritated byreviews obviously written by a.) People who were pissed that this book wasn’t Eat, Pray, Love 2 or b.) jealous academicians who wished they could have gone to Italy,India and Bali, met a beautiful Brazilian man and had to research marriage before doing the deed with their passionate lover.

Getting what you want in life does have something to do with surrendering your lame fear-based plans, opening up to what life/god/providence will offer if you can let go of your assumptions, see the real thing and grab it.

LGBT friends, this book is full of good information that may potentially correct the mind of fundamentalist-blind or uninformed anti-gay marriage folks to whom you may be related in some way.

Excerpt from committed after Gilbert has realized people have always created the secreted, loving unions they need and want inspite of what the man says in recognizable in the name of the state, law, or religion.

pg. 264 — “It is not we as individuals, then, who must bend uncomfortably around the institution of marriage; rather, it is the institution of marriage that has to bend uncomfortably around us. Because “they” (the-powers-that-be) have never been entirely able to stop “us” (two people). from connecting our lives together and creating a secret world of our own. And so “they” eventually have no choice but to legally permit “us” to marry, in some shape or form, no matter how restrictive their ordinances may appear. The government hops along behind its people, struggling to keep up, desperately and belatedly (and often ineffectually and even comically) creating rules and mores around something we were always going to do anyhow, like it or not.”